This is my second take on chanterelles and farro. The first one was a hot entree, with sauteed apples. Today’s variation is a salad, with shaved apples, fennel, and parmesan. The first dish used an apple “balsamic” vinegar to make an emulsified butter sauce. For the salad, I …

Chanterelle mushrooms are one of those magical ingredients which speak of fall, like asparagus in spring, or tomatoes in late summer. Sauteed, they pack a ton of flavor and there really is no substitute. My friend Will recently gave me a few beautiful King apples from his tree, and immediately I …

I made these pumpkin-filled ravioli after reading Paul Bertolli’s astounding Cooking By Hand (which I reviewed last week). I made so many that I ended up freezing half and eating them three times. The first time, we ate them with a simple brown butter sauce and …

I found this enormous lobster mushroom at our neighborhood co-op last week. You can see it in the picture at the bottom, next to my 8" chefs knife. It had "ears" but they broke off. The whole thing weighed just over a pound! That’s a big parasitic ascomycete. A say what? Well …

There is much to be said for a good single-subject cookbook. As much as I value my collection of general cookbooks, I probably reach for the more specific tomes more than any other, because I know they will have both the recipes and inspiration I’m looking for, and more importantly, the detailed techniques I’m going …

Epazote is an absolutely common, everyday herb in many parts of Mexico, Central and South America, but it is barely known in the United States outside of Latin American communities. It is worth your while to track down, as the flavor is utterly unique. If you take bite of the …